A hospital patient is refusing to leave her bed until she is treated after her operation was cancelled four times.

Patient refuses to leave hospital after operation cancelled
Article in the Sunday Telegraph

Extract:

"Irene Gannon, 68, was due to have gall bladder surgery in July but the operation was called off at the last minute.

The grandmother had her treatment cancelled twice more but was given a new appointment and doctors insisted that, this time, it would go ahead.

When it was, perhaps predictably, cancelled a fourth time, she refused to get out of bed and insisted she would stay there until the operation went ahead.

Mrs Gannon, who is at the University hospital of Wales, in Cardiff, has been fasting every day from midnight in the hope that a surgeon will find a slot for her the following day, as she cannot be operated on if she has recently eaten."

I'll bet this sort of thing doesn't happen in other countries! - I was in hospital a year ago with a badly broken arm and my operation too kept being postponed although I was in agonising pain from the splint, which caused radial nerve damage and lymphoedema and pain in my breast from the pressure. In July this year I learned that I have ulnar nerve damage too...)o: which really needs an operation to prevent the right hand from further wasting and further restriction of movement. - I don't know why the damage to the ulna nerve was not looked for/detected and treated long ago. - I have been reporting severe pain and constant pins and needles and restricted movement for over a year. I don't know what is to become of me. Although with great effort on my part the radial nerve damage in the right hand has largely been remedied, the left hand is very painful because of the strain of having had to use it to do the work of two hands for months. The left shoulder has also been overstrained and is very painful and restricted in its movement. My pain and difficulties get worse every day and I have to have carers come to help me to get ready/dressed in a morning.

I don't think any of these painful, difficult, long-term consequences would have happened if my badly broken arm had been operated on promptly. As well as causing terrible, sustained avoidable suffering for me, this is certainly not a sensible use of manpower and resources.

Our lousy, extremely expensive NHS! - It needs to be scrapped and let us have a system that deals with the needs of patients - that treats patients as human beings.

More than 100,000 operations have been postponed by the NHS over the past year for non-clinical reasons.

NHS cancels more than 100,000 operations in a year
Article in the Telegraph

Extract:

"The number of cancelled operations is almost twice as high as previously admitted by the Government with thousands of patients suffering from multiple cancellations.

Ministers have previously said that cancelling operations is "unacceptable" yet have failed to act to prevent hospitals from cancelling procedures, often just hours before surgery is due to take place.

The figures have been obtained by the Conservatives who used Freedom of Information laws to request the data from NHS trusts."

The major operation I had last year was twice postponed 'at the last minute' and so instead of having it a few days after going into hospital, it was actually done almost a fortnight afterwards. This caused me agonising pain, immense extra suffering and continuing disability, and the need for carers still even now. It meant extra weeks in hospital and hundreds of hours of traveling to and from the hospital and waiting and time spent with occupational therapists and physiotherapists. It meant intense, needless, agonising pain. - And even now, it appears, I may need to have another operation because my extreme pain went unheeded and uninvestigated for almost a year after returning home after my hospital stay...)o: - Terrible, prolonged, unnecessary pain and suffering and disability; great, unnecessary additional financial cost...)o: - The NHS is a national disgrace.